Ready for take Hoff: Firmino has secured a Liverpool move (Image: Lars Baron)

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"Mighty oaks from little acorns grow."

Or in Roberto Firmino's case, mighty fig trees.

The 23-year-old's humble beginnings with Brazilian minnows Figueirense - nicknamed the Fig Tree - may mean that he's not tremendously well-known in his homeland.

But his rise to Bundesliga stardom , and the Hoffenheim youngster is now for his country in the Copa America and make a Premier League transfer splash.

Brazil nut: The forward's performances have caught the eye of Dunga (Image: Getty)

"We got him from a smaller club in Brazil and he was obviously a big talent but he was not that well known," a Hoffenheim insider said when MirrorFootball first asked about the player back in April.

"He came here quite young so he was plunged into the German system, but you could see that he was something special.

"After two and a half years he really kicked off and for him, now he’s older, he’s had the honour to represent Brazil. It was his big dream and that’s the level where he is now."

It's where he is, but let's go back to where he started.

Buli boys: Hoffenheim rose through the leagues to the Bundesliga (Image: Alexander Hassenstein)

Firmino comes from the coastal province of Alagoas on Brazil's north-eastern tip. A world away from the smoggy uber-metropolis of Sao Paulo or Rio De Janeiro's heaving streets, it is the nation's second-smallest state and largely relies on the production of coconuts, sugarcane and cattle-ranching for its money.

It is there that he came through the youth system of local club CRB before moving onto Figueirense, a bigger side but still nothing to write home about. Unless you were Roberto Firmino, that is, now displaced to play for The Fig Tree some 3000 kilometres away from home and needing to do so to keep contact with his family.

The next hurdle: Firmino's international debut was just another step in his rapid rise (Image: Reuters)

With second-tier Figueirense he made his name, debuting against Ponte Preta just as he turned 18 and managing 38 appearances for the Florianopolis club until he exchanged Santa Catarina's beaches for the 4,000-population village of Hoffenheim.

In a rise that mirrors Firmino's, the tiny lower-league outfit shot up through the German football pyramid after boyhood fan and multi-millionaire Dietmar Hopp invested heavily in the side, finally getting promoted to the Bundesliga in 2008.

Firmino joined in January 2011 and was eased into the side as a young player in a strange country far away from home.

But it speaks volumes to his temperament and character that he adapted so well to the Bundesliga, something Brazilians have traditionally found difficult.

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"Offensively he can play pretty much anywhere," another club employee reveals. "It’s hard to work out what his best position is because he's so talented that he performs in every position.

"He has the class and the potential to play for one of the biggest teams in the world as he is still very young.

"He’s been in Hoffenheim for many years, so he’s very well integrated. He came here at a young age so it is his home."